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“There are two rules when doing a gorilla trek. Keep a distance of at least 7 meters (about 23 feet) from the gorillas and don’t threaten them,” said one of the park guides. We carefully and mentally noted the rules as we began our trek to see the mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park, in northwest Rwanda in the shadow of Mount Sabinyo, the largest of the extinct volcanoes that comprise the Virunga Mountains. Our group of eight was assigned a relatively easy trail leading to one of the 10 gorilla families in the park. Because gorillas...

Five years ago, just after archaeologist Marcy Rockman joined the National Park Service’s new climate change response program, the GOP-controlled Congress slashed its budget by 70 percent. Republicans were determined to squash President Barack Obama’s climate agenda, and many federal officials were deeply discouraged. So Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis convened his top staff and climate team. Rockman says he pounded his fist on a table and bellowed: “Say the ‘c’ word!” It was a clear battle cry, she adds: “Jarvis was so forceful in...

Long before Lewis and Clark paddled by, Native Americans built homes here at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers, using the thick earth to guard against brutal winters and hard summer heat. They were called the Mandan people. Now, Native Americans are living here again. They sleep in teepees and nylon tents. They ride horses and drive quad cabs. They string banners between trees and, when they can get a signal, they post messages with hashtags such as #ReZpectOurWater, #NoDakotaAccess and #NODAPL. For weeks, they have been...

California has long prided itself on being a world leader on climate change — and with good reason. Within the United States, California is No. 1 (by far) in solar power and No. 3 in wind power. It boasts the third-lowest carbon dioxide emissions per capita behind New York and Vermont. Since 2000, the state has managed to shrink its overall carbon footprint slightly even as its population grew and economy boomed. But now California is taking on a far, far more audacious task: trying to prove to the world that it’s possible — desirable, even —...

The Black Mountains’ Crest Trail scales the spine of the Black Mountains’ most prominent peaks in Yancey County – Mount Craig (6,645 feet), Big Tom Wilson (6,552 feet), Balsam Cone (6,611 feet), and Cattail Peak (6,583 feet), until now, the highest elevation, privately owned peak in the Eastern United States. Thanks to recent events, the maps will change, with a piece of the jigsaw puzzle soon to be colored purple – indicating state-owned land for public enjoyment. The Conservation Fund, a Raleigh-based land trust, has purchased 2,744...

Have you ever seen a cool bird in your backyard and wondered if there was some way to share what you saw with others? Better yet, have you thought about sharing your observations and having them used to help study and conserve those birds? These thoughts are an indicator that you might have the makings of a great citizen scientist. The U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service are engaged in a wide variety of citizen science projects that encourage public involvement in natural and cultural resource science and conservation. Volunteers...

The breadth of Laura and Guy Waterman’s experience in the backcountry of the northeastern U.S. might lead readers of The Green Guide to Low-Impact Hiking and Camping — the third edition of the couple’s seminal 1979 work, Backwoods Ethics — to view it as authoritative. Yet the new title is fitting, for the Watermans always intended the text to be just that, a guide, no matter how adamant their suggestions or convincing their convictions. As iterated in a new, 12-page introduction by Laura Waterman — Guy famously died of suicide by exposure...

Karel Sabbe, a 26-year-old dentist from Belgium, claims to have set a new record on the Pacific Crest Trail. His GPS track looks legitimate, and, if verified, his time of 52 days, 8 hours, and 25 minutes is the fastest known thru-hike of the 2,660-mile trail that crosses the United States from the Mexican border to Canada. The old record was 53 days, 6 hours, and 37 minutes set by Joe McConaughy in 2014. Sabbe announced his record in a press release. According to his GPS track, he finished the trail on Saturday, August 13, 2016. “The plan to...

Crew members from the American Conservation Experience (ACE), the Truckee Trail Foundation (TTF) and the Tahoe National Forest are working diligently to set the foundation for a major work day involving over 200 employees from Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI). The project will reconstruct sections of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) north of California Old Highway 40 past the rock climbing areas and the Summit Lake Trail, beginning at the junction with the PCT and proceeding north. These areas are currently below National Forest Service trail...

The dog days of summer were particularly dogged this year. July clocked in as the hottest month on record, marking the midpoint of what is likely to be the hottest year on record. With sweltering temperatures came a litany of crummy climate news — floods in Louisiana, Zika in Miami, searing heat waves across the Northeast — with dire implications for human health. Last year’s Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change warned that the carbon crisis could undo the last half-century of progress in public health. And yet, for many, it remains...

On Wednesday, August 24, 2016 construction began on a new 80-foot pedestrian bridge for North Carolina’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail near Boone and Blowing Rock. The bridge, in the popular Price Lake Picnic Area along the Blue Ridge Parkway, will allow hikers to avoid a knee-deep wade across Boone Fork as they walk from the Boone Fork Trail over to Shulls Mill Road, where the MST continues up Rich Mountain into Moses Cone Park. On Wednesday, a helicopter carried bridge components and tools from a staging area in the picnic area’s parking lot...

The Pisgah Conservancy, U.S. Forest Service, and a host of supporting organizations have announced a broad based volunteer work day in the Pisgah Ranger District called “Pisgah Pride Day 2016,” which is being planned in conjunction with National Public Lands Day, September 24, 2016. Work crews will convene at different locations on Saturday, September 24, and will perform trail work, surveying and removing invasive species, trash removal, brush trimming, river habitat projects, and more. Afterwards, volunteers will gather at Oskar...

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has announced the Kickstarter campaign for the Latch app. For the past year and a half, the ATC have been working with design studio P’unk Ave to come up with a way to let people share their memories from the Appalachian Trail and connect with what’s happening on the Trail. Born from a shared passion for the Trail and based on extensive research of the Trail and hikers, Latch is the solution arrived at. Latch is a tool for capturing the aura and majesty of the Appalachian Trail through the lens of...

On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, President Obama has designated Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, the first national monument to preserve the landscape and honor the history and culture of Maine’s North Woods. The President’s use of the Antiquities Act to make this designation permanently protects 87,500 acres of lands donated to the National Park Service earlier this week by the Elliottsville Plantation, Inc., (EPI), including the East Branch of the Penobscot River and its tributaries, one of the...

National Park Service (NPS) supporters, visitors and staff are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service this week at 413 parks nationwide. The NPS is inviting everyone to join the celebration by visiting a national park this week. To help everyone find a park to explore, the National Park Service is offering free admission to all 413 national parks from August 25th-August 28th, 2016. There are hundreds of events taking place around the country to celebrate the Centennial in unique, fun and engaging ways. From enjoying a...

After a century of shooing away hunters, tending to trails and helping visitors enjoy the wonder of the natural world, the guardians of America’s most treasured places have been handed an almost unimaginable new job – slowing the all-out assault climate change is waging against national parks across the nation. As the National Park Service (NPS) has charted the loss of glaciers, sea level rise and increase in wildfires spurred by rising temperatures in recent years, the scale of the threat to US heritage across the 412 national parks and...

Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area will be presenting a ranger talk about several popular and easy hiking trails in and around the Cumberland Plateau. This informative program is being held at the Crossville-Cumberland County Visitor Center, Gateway to the Big South Fork, on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016. at 11 a.m. (Central Time). With the fall season fast approaching bringing cooler weather and the change of colors, this indoor presentation is designed to acquaint visitors to many of the beautiful local hiking locations on the...

Forest health officials with the U.S. Forest Service have discovered declining ash trees due to infestation by the emerald ash borer (EAB) whose presence was confirmed on the Appalachian Ranger District of the Pisgah National Forest and on private lands along the French Broad River from the Tennessee state line to Marshall, NC. Decline and death of ash from EAB occurs in a relatively short period of time (one to two years). Ash tend to become brittle very soon after they are killed leading to mid stem failures of trees in the infested area...

For a century, the National Park Service has protected our nation’s treasures. Every day, it works to ensure that current and future generations can enjoy national parks – places that belong to all Americans. As we celebrate the National Park Service’s 100th birthday this week, check out the top moments in the National Park Service’s history. 1864: The birth of the national park idea. 1872: The world’s first national park. 1906: The first national park to preserve our culture. 1916: National Park Service is born. 1916: Bringing national...

Shrouded by smoke from a fire in California’s parched San Bernardino Mountains, schools in the Victor Valley closed their doors earlier this month. The Pilot Fire was contained eventually — shortly before the Blue Cut Fire broke out, billowing soot and ash over the valley afresh, forcing further closures. As the district warned valley residents to “limit time spent outdoors” and to seek medical care for respiratory ailments, school and health clinic closures and canceled sporting events were reminders that health impacts from wildfires carry...

Do you want to know what pests are affecting the health of the trees on the national lands you visit or live near? The Forest Health Advisory System developed by U.S. Forest Service Forest Health Protection highlights potential future activities of more than 40 major forest pests and pathogens across 1.2 billion acres of U.S. forestland. Through a simple web interface, you can actually create an advisory on the national land you’re interested in, whether it’s a national forest, national park, U.S. Fish and Wildlife unit, or tribal land. The...

The Carpathian Mountains run in a great arc across Romania, rising to over 2500 meters in Transylvania and include some of the wildest mountain walking in Europe. A walk in the Piatra Craiului National Park, also in The Carpathians, is a more gentle, rural experience. It’s here that Jude Law and Nicole Kidman filmed Cold Mountain, the park doubling up for Virginia and North Carolina. If anywhere warrants the term “bucolic” then this was it. Scythes, as opposed to machinery, are often used to cut the hay and therefore wildflowers are able to...

New Brunswick, Canada is a province filled with interesting natural destinations that are open for the public to enjoy. One of the most popular activities in the New Brunswick wilderness is hiking, with trails spread throughout the province. One of these is McAdam’s City Camp Trail that starts at the community’s historic railway station, where incidentally you can choose from 24 varieties of homemade pie if your hike leaves you famished. According to Hiking NB, the trail is just a little over three kilometres long. It circles the...

Few people have hiked the length of Grand Canyon. Fewer still have done it all at once. Last year, Rich Rudow and Chris Atwood completed that walk, taking thousands of photographs in the process. “More than four thousand people have summited Mount Everest,” Rudow writes in a blog post about his adventure. About 250 have completed the “triple crown” of hiking — the Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail and Appalachian Trail. But only a dozen people have “walked the length of Grand Canyon in one continuous...

As Americans anticipate family vacations, many are planning trips to our nation’s iconic national parks, such as the Grand Canyon, Zion, Acadia and Olympic. But they may not realize that these and other parks exist because presidents used their power under the Antiquities Act, enacted on June 8, 1906, to protect those places from exploitation and development. The Conversation The Antiquities Act has saved many special places, but at times its use has angered nearby communities. Some critics argue that presidents have used the act to restrict...

The Adirondack Mountains in northern New York State are not geologically part of the Appalachian Chain, as are the White Mountains. They are much older, formed over a billion years ago when upward doming of bedrock embedded under the earth’s crust was thrust upward to create the mountain mass we know today. The White Mountains, on the other hand, are much younger, several million years old and formed by plate tectonics. The White Mountain National Forest comprises about 796,000 acres, while the Adirondack Park is more than 6 million...

The coastal village of Shishmaref, Alaska, voted to relocate due to climate change–induced rising sea levels, according to the city council secretary. The community is home to about 600 people, most of whom are Inupiat Inuit, and welcomed votes from tribal and non-tribal residents alike. This isn’t the first time the village has voted to relocate. In 2002, residents chose to leave for the mainland, but a lack of federal funds made that impossible. The U.S. Department of the Interior has made $8 million available for all tribes seeking...

National parks are the “spacious skies” and “mountain majesties” of elementary school choirs. They’re living postcards from adventurers who had the foresight to preserve natural wonders for those who followed. The 59 U.S. parks are stark and arid, elevated and lush, watery and forbidding. They’re wild. And perhaps most important, they’re common ground. The vast acreage managed by the National Park Service may be the only place where chasms unite us. Park Service lands are as diverse as the visitors they serve and the flora, fauna, ground and...

Tijuca National Park includes the city’s urban forest and sprawling mountains, where peaks overlook the colorful cityscape and offer stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean. Established in 1961, Tijuca was Brazil’s first national park. It is the most visited park in the country and covers 9,768 acres. According to the visitor center, more than 2 million people per year make their way along the 125 miles of pathways. Tijuca National Park is part of the 1,500-square-mile Atlantic Forest that hugs the shoreline of Brazil from the state of Rio...

A barn owl bursts from the tall prairie grasses. Elk skitter among cottonwood trees near an old stagecoach halt. A shrew crosses a track and hurtles into milkweed, where monarch butterflies feed. Somewhere amid the rare xeric grasses are coyotes, moose, mule deer, a handful of endangered Preble’s meadow jumping mice, and more than 600 plant species. “Welcome,” says David Lucas of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “to Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.” The place is undeniably beautiful, one of the best exurban...

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service (NPS). To celebrate, take a hike on your favorite trail, or go to the NPS website to find a park near you, and take one of these healthy snacks along to fuel your journey. Once you select a trail, do some research — especially if you’re planning on a full-day hike. Call the campsite, or research online where you can access water near the trail. Longer hikes may require you to bring a water filter, in case you come across a stream or natural source of water, which may contain...

Yes, it’s hot out there thanks to global warming. NASA reports that last month was the hottest July on record. That follows the hottest June on record, hottest May, April, March, February, and January. It’s almost like there is a pattern…. How hot was it last month? Parts of the Arctic and Antarctic averaged as high as 7.7°C (13.9°F) above average. No wonder we’ve seen records broken for the melting of the ice sheets and Arctic sea ice. It was so hot that Dr. Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, tweeted, “July...

Easily the best thing about Vancouver is how it combines all the exciting bits of big-city living – cutting-edge food, art, music, etc – with fantastic access to the great outdoors. Surrounded by mountains, sea, forests and beaches, you can be eating the latest freshly foraged small plates in an industrial warehouse one minute, then kayaking, mountain-biking or lazing on the beach the next. And one thing you definitely shouldn’t miss in this nature-swathed British Columbian coastal city is hiking in its brilliant parks. Lynn Canyon Park has...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park creates space for wildness, adventure, and imagination. When you think of the Smoky Mountains, think of refuge. The Smokies are a refuge for dreams of freedom, of unimpeded rambling, adventure, and of the faraway that was contained within the nearby, a refuge for magic, for wildness, for the imagination. Wilderness is like that. It seems to have more space and time within it, which means a different experience of being on Earth can be had. It opens up alternate realities. A sanctuary for an...

About Me

I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site.

Great Smoky Mountains guided hiking tours include overnight backpacking trips, inn-based outings, and day hikes. Click for more info.

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